What's the significance of demoting Pluto's planetary status? Why do International Astronomical Union (IAU) name the new found object "Eris"? Is there any connection to astrology? Has this something to do with psychological archetypes? Does this somehow affect the "global unconscious collective mind"? Just consider what happened after Pluto officially where "discovered"!

A distant, icy rock whose discovery shook up the solar system and led to Pluto's planetary demise has been given a name: Eris.

The christening of Eris, named after the Greek goddess of chaos and strife, was announced by the International Astronomical Union last week. Weeks earlier, the professional astronomers' group stripped Pluto of its planethood under new controversial guidelines.

Since its discovery last year, Eris, which had been known as 2003 UB313, ignited a debate about what constitutes a planet.

ERIS: Sister of ARES the War God, ERIS is the Goddess of Strife and Discord.

She stole one of the Golden Apples of Immortality, given to HERA as a wedding present by GAIA, and turned it into the Sour Apple of Discord.

What caused the Trojan War? Thanks to ERIS and her apple, it was chaos, confusion and top quality bitching!

Miffed at not being invited to the all-star Olympus wedding of Peleus, King of Thessaly, and Thetis, future mother of Achilles, ERIS sneaked in anyway. There's always a bit of bitchiness among the top Greek Goddesses, but ATHENA and HERA were swanning around quite happily until ERIS tossed the Golden Apple among them, bearing the label 'For The Fairest'.

...This, of course, started the Trojan War, which lasted for ten long-suffering years and caused a severe drain on the world's supply of spears. And all because of a simple piece of fruit!

Meanwhile ERIS laughed like a drain. "That Trojan Horse thing — what a cackle!" she shrieked as she shared the joke with her sisters. Who, we have reason to believe, just happened to be NEMESIS and the FATES.

Nowadays ERIS is held in the highest esteem by Discordians, Pranksters and those who like to set the cat amongst the pigeons. Little wonder that the solar system's 'tenth planet' — discovered in 2005 and the cause of much astronomical discord and argument — has been named after her.

Eris is the Greek goddess of discord and strife. She is Ares' constant companion and follows him everywhere. Eris is sinister and mean, and her greatest joy is to make trouble. She has a golden apple that is so bright and shiny everybody wants to have it. When she throws it among friends, their friendship come to a rapid end. When she throws it among enemies, war breaks out, for the golden apple of Eris is the Apple of Discord. She did this once during the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and this act brought about the Trojan War.

Astrology has often used the astrophysical features of the planets and their orbits as springboards to symbolic interpretation. Observation and measurement of the planets is the realm of astronomy; observation of the planets’ relationship to human behavior and events here on Earth is the realm of astrology. The two—astronomy and astrology—are connected, but astrology separates from astronomy when astrologers use the planets as symbols, energies, archetypes, and myths, connecting these to human behavior and earthly events.

The planets’ names—Mercury, Venus, etc.—represent mythic archetypes which are used in astrology. Similarly, astrology transforms the language of astronomical observations into the language of symbols. Some examples: Mercury’s quick orbit relates it to phone calls, e-mail, and instant messaging; Mars is the “red planet,” red being a color of anger and aggression; Saturn is the farthest planet which can be seen with the naked eye, thus representing boundaries; Uranus’ odd, slightly flattened shape symbolizes non-conformity; and so on. The scientific behaviors and characteristics of the planets and luminaries have enriched their symbolic meanings in astrology.

The observation of Pluto’s small size was originally responsible for much of its symbolic interpretation in astrology. When tiny Pluto was found, the world was just beginning to discover the awesome power of something else very small, the atom. This invisible particle would soon be capable of destroying civilization. The radioactive element plutonium, used in nuclear weapons, was named after the planet. Also, Pluto’s orbital stretch into the dark unknown seemed to metaphorically parallel the growing field of psychiatry and its probing of the unconscious.

Pluto has several other astronomical features which are also highly symbolic and ensure that Pluto’s power as an astrological symbol need not be weakened.

Pluto’s eccentric, egg-shaped orbit brings it from the dark outer limits of the solar system—the Kuiper Belt—to an orbit inside of Neptune. Unlike the other planets which orbit our sun in neat circles, Pluto moves slowly in an elongated oval. If an unseen hand were to take a time-lapse picture of our solar system from above, holding the shutter open for 248 years (the length of Pluto’s orbit), what would we see? Pluto’s orbit would appear like a great string of beautiful cosmic pearls flung over the outer reaches of the solar system, its graceful loop connecting the planets to the collective celestial bodies of the Kuiper Belt. In this way, Pluto symbolically links us to cosmic forces beyond the realm of our human understanding—forces which we are just now beginning to comprehend.

Pluto’s moon, Charon (pronounced CARE-uhn), also gives Pluto a special place in the solar system. Charon is named after the boatman in Greek mythology who ferried the dead across the river Acheron. Unlike Earth’s moon, which has its own center of gravity, Pluto’s center of gravity is in the space midway between it and Charon.3 As a result, they do not spin individually like our earth and moon but together, locked on the same axis. Pluto and Charon rotate while eternally chasing one another, clenched in the tension of a distant cosmic pursuit—the god of the Underworld and the ferryman of the dead—yet never completing the chase. Pluto’ unique gravitational connection to its moon gives it added mythic power, resonant with deep overtones of mortality.

The beautiful symbolism of Pluto and Charon can be seen in John Keats’ classic poem, “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” which extols two lovers painted on a funeral urn. Although a pair of lovers may seem a far cry from Pluto and Charon, the lovers are locked in an eternal pose of youthful chase—much like Pluto and its moon, Charon—one in “mad pursuit,” the other fleeing in a playful “struggle to escape.” The lovers’ youthfulness is frozen in time on a funeral symbol, the urn. Keats could have been writing about Pluto when he refers to one of the figures as the “foster-child of silence and slow time.”4

The International Astronomers Union transformed Pluto from a planet to “the prototype of a new category of trans-Neptunian objects.” Trans-Neptunian objects is another name for the Kuiper Belt. Pluto, the planet of transformation, is itself undergoing a transformation—from planet to prototype. A prototype means the standard for a new model. Translated into the symbolic language of astrology, Pluto’s transformation indicates that something is also being transformed in human consciousness, and humanity is being given a new standard to move towards.

Porsepine (Persephone) of fertility, is kidnapped by Pluto (Hades) and taken to the Underworld, where she eats 3 seeds of a pomegranate. Pluto endeavours to keep her there indefinitely, however, her mother Ceres (Demeter) negotiates for her conditional release.

For the 3 pomegranate seeds, Porsepine was to spend 3 months in the underworld, to the return to the Earth for the remaining part of the year.

Pluto rules over everything in the earth, including grain, gold, money, oil and naturally, plutonium.

Pluto rules the Winter Months, when Porsepine joins him under the Earth for December 21 - March 20. January and February were not acknowledged, and the days corresponding to those months weren’t counted.

Pluto, the planet, was discovered on February 19 1930.
name “Pluto” announced on May 1 1930, May Day, day for workers.

Pluto, the god of money & grain. Just prior to this discovery:
the stock market crash started on October 24 with Black Tuesday October 29 signaling the crash.

afterwards, unemployment rose as the Dust Bowl turned topsoil to dust, winds sending it adrift, forcing Roosevelt to declare his New Deal in 1932.

the economy took an upturn when the US entered WW II

September 11 1941 - the Pentagon is dedicated.

Aug 6 & Aug 9 1945 - Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombed with Plutonium.

1973 - World Trade Centre is dedicated

February 1979 to February 1999 Pluto crosses Neptune’s orbit.

1999 signified the end of the longest uninterrupted period of economic growth in history.

The '10th planet' or 'Xena' has officially been named 'Eris' - the goddess of discord whose Golden Apple set in motion a sequence of events that led to the Trojan War. This is another manifestation of the underlying pattern we recognized as having much to do with the Golden Apple/Trojan War as stated before.

Interesing stuff! Needs more research!

"What caused the Trojan War? Thanks to ERIS and her apple, it was chaos, confusion and top quality bitching!"